Students who scored 95% or above were part of a small group of 17,693 students in 2019, less than 1.5% of total candidates. In 2020, when the exams were disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, that figure more than doubled to 38,686. And in 2021, it reached 70,004 (5.37%) despite the CBSE asking the schools to moderate the marks diligently and not inflate scores.

Although not commenting on whether this is due to schools becoming liberal or students’ performance is extraordinary despite covid disruptions and schools’ closures, the central board stated that almost all schools adopted and adhered to the assessment policy of CBSE.

The number of students who scored above 90% but below 95% climbed down slightly from almost 160,000 last year to 150,152 in 2021. This number was about 94,000 in 2019.

This will have a direct bearing on college admission, resulting in high cut-offs in top universities like Delhi University.

Overall, 12,96,318 students of CBSE schools passed the class 12 exams recording a 99.37% success rate in 2021. Girls’ success rate this year is 99.67%, which is 0.54% higher than boys.

The central board said, 65,184, students results were withheld and are likely to be announced by 5 August. This may be due to the late submission of data by respective schools i.e. beyond 25 July.

The CBSE class 12 board results were announced based on a 30:30:40 model after exams were cancelled, where the performance of a student in class 10 and 11 were awarded 30% weight each, and class 12 performance got 40% weightage.